My knowledge of Java books is probably pretty out of date, but I got some mileage out of the Deitel & Deitel book Java: How To Program.
Also, where can the java community be found online?
all come to mind...
##java
#spring
#eclipse
#jboss
#hibernate
#lucene
are ones I sometimes lurk in, that are fairly active. The Triangle (NC) Java User's Group also have a channel, but it's not terribly active most of the time.
#trijug (again, on Freenode)
Also, if you're not already in #startups, it's a channel full of HN users... might be of interest to ya.
Disclaimer: I am an op there.